PEHSU Region 3

Service area: Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington DC, West Virginia 

Intro: The Region 3 PEHSU, founded in 2000, is located in Villanova, PA at the M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing at Villanova University, and serves Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington DC, and West Virginia. It is one of ten units that make up the national PEHSU network.   

Academic Affiliation: M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing at Villanova University 

Faculty & staff

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Ruth McDermott-Levy, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN

Region 3 Co-Director

Michelle Kelly, PhD, CRNP, CNE, FAANP, FAAN

Region 3 Co-Director

Susan Rubinstein, MPH

Program Director

Katie Huffling, DNP, RN, CNM, FAAN

Consultant Nurse-Midwife

Lois Wessel, DNP, FNP

POCES Project Consultant

Teresa Conte, PhD

POCES Project Consultant

Ruth McDermott-Levy, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN

Region 3 Co-Director

An expert in environmental health, global health, and public health nursing, Dr. McDermott-Levy has taught and conducted research in Philadelphia’s immigrant communities, with community health workers in Nicaragua, and in the Marcellus Shale region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. She has also investigated extreme weather adaptation of community-based organizations. With nurse colleagues around the U.S., Dr. McDermott-Levy has developed recommendations and teaching strategies to incorporate environmental health into the nursing curricula. Dr. McDermott-Levy is a co-editor of an open-access environmental health textbook for nurses, Environmental Health in Nursing. In 2018, she received the Fulbright-Saastamoinen Foundation Health and Environmental Sciences Award for Teaching and Research in Finland. She is the 2020 recipient of the Charlotte Brody award from Health Care Without Harm.    

Michelle Kelly, PhD, CRNP, CNE, FAANP, FAAN

Region 3 Co-Director

Michelle Kelly is a dual-certified pediatric and neonatal nurse practitioner with over 25 years of experience providing care to children of all ages, in a variety of settings. She earned a BSN in 1994 and PhD in 2012 from Villanova University, an MSN in 1997 from the pediatric nurse practitioner program at the University of Pennsylvania and a post-master certificate in 2005 from the neonatal nurse practitioner program at Thomas Jefferson University. Dr Michelle Kelly is an Associate Professor at Villanova University’s M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing. She is an advocate for promoting children’s health, with a special focus on children and adolescents who were born preterm.   She presents nationally and internationally on preterm birth outcomes, nurse practitioner practice, and leadership. She continues to practice clinically as a volunteer pediatric nurse practitioner at a free and charitable practice serving the uninsured and underserved in her community.  

Susan Rubinstein, MPH

Program Director

Susan has a master’s in public health from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. She has previously worked in HIV/AIDS and has vast experience in grants management and operations. Most recently, Susan worked for a nonprofit whose mission is facilitating the transition to a clean energy future. 

Katie Huffling, DNP, RN, CNM, FAAN

Consultant Nurse-Midwife

Dr. Katie Huffling is a Certified Nurse-Midwife and the Executive Director of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE). With ANHE, Dr. Huffling works with nurses and nursing organizations to elevate environmental health issues, such as toxic chemicals and sustainability in healthcare amongst the nursing profession. Dr. Huffling received her DNP in Health Innovation and Leadership from the University of Minnesota. She is an appointed member of the US Environmental Protection Agency Children’s Health Protection Advisory Council and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine’s Action Collaborative on Decarbonizing the U.S. Health Sector. She was a recipient of the 2018 Charlotte Brody Award which recognizes nurses who go beyond everyday nursing endeavors to proactively promote and protect environmental health. 

Lois Wessel, DNP, FNP

POCES Project Consultant

Lois Wessel is an associate professor at School of Nursing and Medicine at Georgetown University and a clinician at CCI Health Services in Silver Spring, MD with a focus on immigrant and refugee health.  She is bilingual (English-Spanish) and is involved with numerous community and environmental health programs including Migrant Clinicians Network where she leads an annual Diabetes ECHO series in Spanish.  She contributed to the environmental health textbook for nurses published by the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments and is an active member of that organization.  She was a Duke Johnson & Johnson Nurse Leadership Fellow and is a member of the editorial board for the Journal for Nurse Practitioners. 

Teresa Conte, PhD

POCES Project Consultant

Dr. Teresa Conte is an associate professor of nursing at the University of Scranton in Scranton, PA. She has been a pediatric nurse with a focus in oncology for 28 years and is a certified pediatric nurse practitioner. Dr. Conte is a fellow of the Association of Pediatric Hematology Oncology Nurses.